Personal protective equipment

ABSTRACT

Personal protective equipment configured to reduce the discomfort of the protruding joint of the conventional personal protective equipment includes a sleeve, at least one adhesive membrane, and at least one thin film. The sleeve is formed by curving an elastic fabric and joining two opposite joining edges of the elastic fabric in a butting manner. The adhesive membrane has an adhesive side adhesively attached to a surface of the sleeve over an area where the two opposite joining edges of the sleeve extend. The thin film covers and is adhesively attached to another adhesive side of the adhesive membrane. The personal protective equipment, therefore, has a flat joint and is spared those prior art drawbacks attributable to the protuberance of a hemmed border or overlap seam, such as an uncomfortable sensation and a lack of conformity to the contour of the body part being protected.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Technical Field

The present invention relates to the structure of personal protective equipment. More particularly, the invention relates to personal protective equipment that has a flat seam and can therefore be comfortably worn and conform to the contour of the body part being protected.

2. Description of Related Art

Personal protective equipment such as elbow braces and knee pads are generally used to provide protection during sports or for rehabilitation purposes. Typically, such protective equipment includes a constrictive sleeve to be worn tightly around a joint of the human body (e.g., an elbow, wrist, or knee) so as to prevent undesirable displacement of the joint and/or protect the muscles around the joint from straining. When padded, such protective equipment can further cushion the impact of an external force on the protected body part.

The aforesaid personal protective equipment can be formed in many ways, one of which resembles the manufacturing process of a sock and is carried as follows. Yarns incorporated with elastic strips are woven in a circular manner to form a tubular sleeve. The sleeve is then cut to the desired length, before the cut edges are hemmed, i.e., folded back and sewn in place. While the sleeve-type personal protective equipment can be called seamless, the hemming forms a thick border at each end of the sleeve. Therefore, in addition to the roughness of the borders, a wearer may feel that the sleeve does not conform to the contour of the body part being protected. Another method of forming the foregoing personal protective equipment involves cutting an elastic fabric to an appropriate width and sewing the two lateral edges of the fabric together in an overlapping manner to form a sleeve. As the overlap seam must form a protuberance, the resulting protective equipment will not conform perfectly to the contour of the body part being protected.

Referring to FIG. 1, a piece of conventional personal protective equipment that is designed for impact reduction or joint protection generally has a protective pad 92 connected to a sleeve 90 by sewing or hot pressing. The protective pad 92 is in most cases an annular pad to be placed directly on a user's joint 94 to cushion the impact of an external force, and has a central opening 96 to allow free movement of the joint 94. Since the area covered by the protective pad 92 is quite limited, only a small area around the joint 94 receives anti-impact protection; in other words, the area outside the protective pad 92 is still subject to injury. Another drawback of this padded personal protective equipment is that it makes the protected body part as unsightly as being applied with a medical plaster.

The foregoing personal protective equipment is also disadvantaged by the fact that it is typically worn around a joint and therefore tends to be moved out of its intended position when the wearer moves the joint frequently (e.g., while running or during a ball game). The wearer has to pull the personal protective equipment back to its original position each time the protective equipment is displaced, which causes inconvenience of use.

BRIEF SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

In view of the aforementioned drawbacks of the conventional personal protective equipment, the inventor of the present invention provides personal protective equipment that includes a sleeve, at least one adhesive membrane, and at least one thin film. The sleeve is formed by curving an elastic fabric and butt-joining the two opposite joining edges of the elastic fabric. The adhesive membrane has an adhesive side adhesively attached to a surface of the sleeve over an area where the butt joint extends. The thin film covers and is adhesively attached to another adhesive side of the plastic membrane.

Preferably, the adhesive membrane and the thin film are adhesively attached to each of the inner and outer surfaces of the sleeve over an area where the butt joint extends.

Preferably, the personal protective equipment further includes a pad provided on the outer surface of the sleeve.

Preferably, the pad covers the butt joint of the sleeve completely.

Preferably, the pad includes a plurality of protruding blocks on the surface.

Preferably, some of the protruding blocks have a greater height than the others.

Preferably, the pad forms a pattern or design so as to support or protect the body part to which the personal protective equipment is applied.

Preferably, the pad includes a main body and a strip-like pad extending from an edge of the main body.

Preferably, the main body of the pad and the strip-like pad extending therefrom are each provided with a plurality of protruding blocks.

Preferably, the inner surface of the sleeve is provided with an anti-slip or massaging feature, and the anti-slip or massaging feature is preferably strip-like, mesh-like, or dot-shaped projections.

The butt joint of the personal protective equipment described above is flat and therefore free of the drawbacks associated with the protuberance of the hemmed borders or overlap seams of the conventional personal protective equipment, e.g., an uncomfortable sensation and a lack of conformity to the contour of the body part being protected. In addition, the pad on the outer surface of the personal protective equipment provides anti-impact and anti-muscle strain protection to the body part to which the personal protective equipment is applied. Also, the anti-slip or massaging feature on the inner surface of the personal protective equipment prevents the personal protective equipment from sliding during use and serves to massage the protected area so as to reduce the uncomfortable sensation of long-term constriction by the personal protective equipment.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE SEVERAL VIEWS OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 schematically shows a piece of conventional personal protective equipment applied to a body part;

FIG. 2 is a schematic perspective view of a piece of personal protective equipment according to the present invention;

FIG. 3 is a detailed view of portion A in FIG. 2;

FIG. 4 schematically shows how a piece of personal protective equipment according to the invention is applied to a body part;

FIG. 5 schematically shows the arrangement of the protruding blocks on the pad of a piece of personal protective equipment according to the invention; and

FIG. 6 schematically shows the anti-slip or massaging feature on the sleeve of a piece of personal protective equipment according to the invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

At least one embodiment of the present invention is described below with reference to the accompanying drawings to expound the contents of, and a preferred mode of implementing, the invention. It should be pointed out that implementation of the invention is by no means limited to the details set forth and shown in the following description and the drawings. The invention can be carried out in many different ways in various applications. Besides, it is understood that the wording and terms used herein serve explicatory purposes only and should not be construed as limiting.

Referring to FIG. 2 and FIG. 3, the personal protective equipment according to the first preferred embodiment of the present invention includes a sleeve 10 formed essentially by curving an elastic fabric 12 and joining the two opposite joining edges 14 of the elastic fabric 12 in a butting (rather than overlapping) manner. An adhesive membrane 16 is adhesively attached to one or each of the two surfaces of the elastic fabric 12 over an area where the two opposite joining edges 14, or more particularly the now butt-joined edges 14, extend, and a thin film 18 covers and is adhesively attached to another adhesive side of the adhesive membrane 16. Thus, the curved elastic fabric 12 forms the sleeve 10, whose butt-joined edges 14 are inseparable from each other. Preferably, the thin film 18 is a plastic film or a piece of cloth that does not deform easily, lest the butt-joined edges 14 of the sleeve 10 be stretched and consequently pulled apart. The remaining portion of the elastic fabric 12 is nevertheless capable of elastic stretching and constriction.

The personal protective equipment shown in FIG. 3 has the adhesive membrane 16 and the thin film 18 adhesively attached to each of the inner and outer surfaces of the sleeve 10 over an area where the butt-joined edges 14 extend. In other embodiments, however, it is feasible to adhesively attach the adhesive membrane 16 and the thin film 18 to only one of the inner and outer surfaces (e.g., the outer surface) of the sleeve 10 over an area where the butt-joined edges 14 extend. The latter configuration allows the inner side of the sleeve 10, which is to be in contact with a wearer's skin, to be substantially free of any undesirable projection so that the personal protective equipment can conform perfectly to the contour of the body part being protected and provide the highest level of comfortableness without losing too much of the bonding strength between the butt-joined edges 14.

Referring to FIG. 4 and FIG. 5, the personal protective equipment according to the second preferred embodiment of the present invention further includes a pad 20 provided on the outer surface of the sleeve 10 of the personal protective equipment in the first preferred embodiment. The pad 20 may cover the outer surface of the sleeve 10 completely or partially. In the embodiment shown in FIG. 5, the pad 20 may be directly attached to the outer surface of the sleeve 10 by any appropriate means such as hot pressing or adhesive bonding, and in that case the thin film 18 on the sleeve 10 can be dispensed with, lest the pad 20 be partially raised after being attached to the sleeve 10. In fact, the pad 20 can be used in place of the thin film 18 to join the two opposite joining edges 14 of the elastic fabric 12 together, and in that case the pad 20 should cover the two opposite joining edges 14 of the sleeve 10 completely.

The pad 20 may have a uniform thickness or, as shown in FIG. 5, have a plurality of protruding blocks 22 on the surface, wherein some of the protruding blocks 22 are higher than the others. When the personal protective equipment is applied to a wearer 24′s body part (see FIG. 4), the relatively high protruding blocks 22 can absorb the initial impact of an external force, thereby protecting the main portion of the joint in that body part. The relatively low protruding blocks 22, on the other hand, can absorb/reduce subsequent impact or friction and thereby protect the area around the joint, the objective being to provide comprehensive protection to the body part. To this end, as a person of ordinary skill in the art would understand, the plural protruding blocks 22 (which may have the same height or different heights) are connected to the pad 20 only at their bases; the remaining portions of the protruding blocks 22 are preferably spaced apart and unconnected, although the protruding blocks 22 may also be partially connected in areas other than their bases. In either case, the spaced-apart protruding blocks 22 will correspond respectively to different portions of the body part being protected, thus not only allowing the body part to stretch and bend with ease, but also offering comprehensive protection by dispersing any impact force on the body part.

Aside from having the protruding blocks 22, the pad 20 itself may be configured for protection. For example, the pad 20 may form a pattern or design that allows the pad 20 to support or protect the body part to which the personal protective equipment is applied. For example, the pad 20 may have a strip-like configuration for securing, tightening up, or pressurizing the muscles or fasciae in the body part to which the personal protective equipment is applied, with a view to reinforcing the muscles or fasciae.

As a variant of the pad configurations described above, the pad 20 may include a pattern or design as well as a plurality of protruding blocks. In FIG. 4, for example, one or more strip-like pads 26 extend from the edges of the main body of the pad 20 in order to be used to tighten up or pressurize the body part being protected. The main body of the pad 20 and the extended strip-like pads 26 are also provided with protruding blocks 22, whose heights may vary, e.g., decreasing gradually from the main body toward the strip-like pads 26.

Referring to FIG. 6, the personal protective equipment in the first and the second preferred embodiments may further include an anti-slip or massaging feature 28 on the inner surface of the sleeve 10. The anti-slip or massaging feature 28 may be formed on only a portion or the entirety of the inner surface of the sleeve 10 and implemented as strip-like, mesh-like, or dot-shaped projections.

The embodiments described above are only some preferred ones of the present invention and are not intended to be restrictive of the scope of the invention. Based on the present disclosure, a person of ordinary skill in the art may change or modify the disclosed embodiments without departing from the technical spirit of the invention. The scope of patent protection sought by the applicant is defined by the appended claims. 

What is claimed is:
 1. Personal protective equipment, comprising: a sleeve formed by curving an elastic fabric and joining two opposite joining edges of the elastic fabric in a butting manner; at least one adhesive membrane having an adhesive side adhesively attached to a surface of the sleeve over an area where the two opposite joining edges extend; and at least one thin film covering and adhesively attached to another adhesive side of the adhesive membrane.
 2. The personal protective equipment of claim 1, wherein the sleeve has an inner surface and an outer surface, a said adhesive membrane and a said thin film are adhesively attached to the inner surface of the sleeve over an area where the two opposite joining edges extend, and another said adhesive membrane and another said thin film are adhesively attached to the outer surface of the sleeve over an area where the two opposite joining edges extend.
 3. The personal protective equipment of claim 1, further comprising a pad provided on an outer surface of the sleeve.
 4. The personal protective equipment of claim 3, wherein the pad covers the two opposite joining edges of the sleeve completely.
 5. The personal protective equipment of claim 3, wherein the pad has a surface provided with a plurality of protruding blocks.
 6. The personal protective equipment of claim 5, wherein some of the protruding blocks are higher than the other protruding blocks.
 7. The personal protective equipment of claim 3, wherein the pad forms a pattern or design configured for supporting or protecting a human body part to which the personal protective equipment is applied.
 8. The personal protective equipment of claim 3, wherein the pad comprises a main body and a strip-like pad extending from an edge of the main body.
 9. The personal protective equipment of claim 8, wherein the main body of the pad and the strip-like pad extending therefrom are each provided with a plurality of protruding blocks.
 10. The personal protective equipment of claim 1, wherein the sleeve has an inner surface provided with an anti-slip or massaging feature, and the anti-slip or massaging feature is strip-like, mesh-like, or dot-shaped projections. 